Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and other media. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Dual connectivity is a new innovative network architecture that allows a User Equipment (UE) to connect with more than one base station and/or network cell simultaneously. The UE can connect with a Master Cell Group (MCG) and a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) at the same time by connecting to a Master Evolved Node B (MeNB) and a Secondary Evolved Node B (SeNB) at the MCG and SCG respectively.
The transmission of RRC messages via the SeNB is not supported by proposed standards for Dual Connectivity. Thus, in order to realize the full benefit of proposed dual connectivity networks, there is now a need for enhancements in current 3GPP LTE standards to coordinate and align configuration and other operations by including RRC configuration information for SeNBs in MeNB RRC messaging protocols.